“Welcome to Australia! For tourists eager to see the place, you seem reluctant. Is it the thought of stepping foot in a foreign land? No, it can’t be that. After all, you’ve been all aroundEurope and you’ve come from Africa.” He slowly walks forward and each movement he makes sends a ripple through his guards.
They seem to mirror him in subtle ways, keeping him in their sight at all times, and while their grasp on their weapons seems relaxed, there’s no doubt in my mind that they would all shoot me before I reached my gun.
“Are you concerned about customs?” Hawk continues as if we’re casually chatting. “I know, it’s strict here. Don’t sweat. We’re only breaking a few hundred laws but we won’t be staying long.”
What the fuck does he mean by that?
Hawk stops a few feet away from the bottom of the step and finally lowers his arms. “Is it the plane?”
“If you’re trying to impress us by showing you have the leverage to divert an entire plane, then you really have no idea who you’re dealing with,” Faina remarks sharply from behind me.
Hawk laughs. “It’s not you I’m interested in impressing,” he remarks. “But to satisfy your curiosity, you should know that it was actuallysupereasy to do that because that plane is mine. Technically. Because the airline is mine, and when I tell them to bring me a plane, they really bring me a plane. And all the people inside?” He points toward the plane. “All my people.”
My stomach sinks with the daunting realization that I’ve grossly underestimated this man’s reach. He has access to money all over the world and while it’s fucking obscene, it’s not surprising that he owns an airline.
“Careful,” I say as I slowly start to walk down the stairs. “You wouldn’t want anyone to lose respect for your large ego.”
“Ahh, Cian. How nice it will be to finally talk to you face to face.” He smiles widely. “When I heard you were in Egypt, I knew you’d be looking for me. I wasn’t sure if you would be able to track me down given the crumbs I left, but I should have known your little friend would be on it.”
Little friendturns the anger inside me into white-hot rage. I want to launch myself down the steps and throw myself into him, beating him until I can’t feel my hands anymore. The only thing keeping me calm is Faina’s continued contact with my back while she walks behind me.
“You’re not that hard to find,” I reply tightly.
Hawk snorts. “Indeed. And when I saw you trying to get onto a plane to come here, then I knew exactly how to finally speak to you properly.”
“If you wanted to do that, then why run?”
“You think I’m running?” He glances back at his guards as if looking for approval that my words are ridiculous. “Cian, I’m a busy man. I can’t always drop everything to come and speak with someone. I wait for them to come to me. Simple, really.”
“And what’s to stop me from killing you right here and now?” At the bottom of the steps, we’re face to face and he’s close enough that the wind brings me the spice of his aftershave.
“Nothing but curiosity,” Hawk replies, but his smile instantly turns cold. “Go on. Take a shot. Do you think you can move faster than my men? It’s been a while since they’ve been challenged and the two of you, I bet could give them a run for their money. In another life, I would have loved to have you by my side.” His eyes slide past me to Faina.
“As what?” She snorts softly. “Apet?”
“My head of security. A woman with your talents is rare.”
“You don’t know enough women.”
“Ooh.” Hawk pouts slightly with narrowed eyes. “The cat’s got claws.”
“This cat’s going to kill you,” she snaps.
I move between them as if I can protect her and glare at Hawk. “We’re here. You went to all this trouble to get us here, so now what? If your plan is to bore us to death, then maybe it’s working.”
“Indeed.” Hawk snaps his fingers and his guards suddenly surge forward. Within thirty seconds, my hands are locked and secured behind my back.
Faina and I are half-dragged, half-shoved toward the limo parked at the end of the line of cars and quickly shoved inside. Faina lands next to me, and I try to reach out to her, but we’re kept apart by two guards while Hawk joins us and sits at the back of the limo near the door.
“Restraints, really?” I scoff, trying to antagonize him. “You’re that scared of us?”
“It’s merely protocol.” Hawk shrugs. “I’m not afraid.”
“You should be,” Faina snarls, wrestling against the man keeping her back against the seat.
“Ooh.” Hawk chuckles. “You know, the two of you are perfect representations of everything I hated about America. You’re like cockroaches. Even though I wanted to speak to you, part of me was hoping this world would stamp you out. It would be one lessthing on my plate, you understand. But I should have known.” His gaze lands on me. “How did you survive the mansion explosion?”
My heart begins to pound so hard my tongue vibrates. “You mean when you slaughtered my fucking family?”
